All-New Sessions and Topics for 2006

Ben Kozuch, conference chairperson of NAB Post|Production World Conference, is also the president and co-founder of Future Media Concepts, the nation''s premier digital media training organization for editing, motion graphics, web development, and sound design. Kozuch holds a BA in Engineering from Tel Aviv University and is a graduate of the Air Force Academy as a fighter pilot. He holds an MBA in International Business from the European School of Management in Paris.

If there's one thing Ben Kozuch values above all else, it's producing conference sessions that provide attendees with practical information they can use immediately to enhance their productivity. He's also a strong believer in producing conferences that don't rely on recycled information from previous years.

Given those guiding principles, it's understandable why, in just two years time, the NAB Post|Production World Conference has become one of the most successful conferences at the NAB show. It's also the reason why Kozuch is confident that anyone who attended last year's NAB Post|Production World Conference will be delighted by what they find at this year's conference.

“All of the sessions at this year's conference have been completely refreshed,” says Kozuch, the conference chairperson and president and co-founder of Future Media Concepts (FMC). “None of the content is the same. In addition, we have several new tracks, twice as many certification classes as before, and a new NAB Podcasting Summit that's already proving to be immensely popular.”

First introduced at NAB2004, the NAB Post|Production World Conference was developed by NAB in partnership with FMC, the nation's premier digital media training center. Geared primarily at intermediate and advanced users, the conference provides in-depth instructional sessions that help postproduction professionals enhance their creative, technical and business skills. This year the conference offers more than 200 sessions divided into 16 different tracks, making it easily the largest postproduction educational conference in the world.

In its first year, the conference attracted 1,200 attendees. Last year it attracted 1,400. This year, given the rave reviews offered by past attendees, that growth is expected to continue. And to help encourage past attendees to come back again, the conference is even offering special alumni pricing and special alumni gift packs.

John Marino is vice president of science and technology for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and is responsible for the development of the many technology-oriented conferences and seminars presented by NAB. Marino''s broadcast experience extends over 20 years and includes the positions of vice president of engineering and director of engineering for a number of broadcast groups.

“We produce many conferences during the NAB show, and the Post|Production World Conference is one of the most successful,” says John Marino, NAB's vice president of science and technology. “By offering this unique conference to postproduction professionals, we feel we are meeting the need to educate our show attendees in digital media.”

Nearly all of the conference classes will be hands-on sessions, where each student is outfitted with a laptop computer.

The conference will kick off on Friday, April 21 with a software Boot Camp. The Boot Camp is targeted at users who need to brush up on their familiarity with a few key software programs before plunging into the more advanced courses that form the meat of the conference.

The FastStart sessions of the Boot Camp, says Kozuch, have proven to be even more popular over the last two years than he anticipated, especially among those looking to diversify their skill sets. “These days you can't thrive off just one software program,” he says. “You can't be just an editor. You also need to know how to use Photoshop, how to create special effects, or how to prepare your show for DVD authoring or web delivery. You have to be multi-purposed. The Boot Camp is a great way to get up to speed on some different programs.”

Each of the 16 FastStart sessions runs three hours. Among the programs being covered this year are Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Autodesk 3ds max, Autodesk Maya, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Apple DVD Studio, and Newtek Lightwave.

Friday also marks the start of the conference's certified training classes. This year, the conference is offering twice as many certification classes as before, giving attendees the option to become certified in many more programs. In addition to the Avid Xpress Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, and the Apple Motion courses offered last year, this year's offerings include classes in Apple DVD Studio Pro, Sony Vegas, Adobe PhotoShop CS2, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe After Effects. continued...

Unlike the rest of the sessions at the conference, nearly all of these will be hands-on courses where students will be provided with a laptop computer they can use to work on and to take the certification exams offered at the end of the sessions. The classes run one or two days, and students must register for each class separately.

“Most of the people take these sessions because they want to increase their chances of doing well on the exams,” says Kozuch. “However, there are also a number of people who take the classes simply because it's a great way to get some in-depth, hands-on training on these programs.”

Many of the NAB Post|Production World Conference sessions are product-specific, helping users develop a better understanding of the product''s toolsets.

The conference begins in earnest on Saturday, April 22, and runs through Wednesday, April 26.

At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, attendees are invited to attend the first of two keynote addesses. The Saturday keynote speech will be given by Dylan Tichenor, editor of the Oscar-nominated film Brokeback Mountain. Tichenor will use his talk to show clips from that film and others to illustrate his approach to the craft of editing. On Sunday at 10:30 a.m., a second keynote address will be offered by Hughes Winborne, the Oscar Award winning editor of Crash, who will not only share his experiences on that film but will invite his longtime assistant editor John Breinholt to join him on stage to discuss the critically important relationship between editor and assistant.

From Saturday through Wednesday, those who've registered for the full conference will have the opportunity to move freely among the many sessions being offered. Among other things, the conference will offer sessions on video and film editing, compositing, lighting, shooting, sound design, 3D animation, web design, encoding, and DVD authoring.

Many of the tracks are product-specific and are intended to help users develop a deeper understanding of a particular product's toolsets. Examples of such tracks include Avid DS Nitris, Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Nonlinear Editors, and Advanced Motion Graphics and VFX with After Effects.

Other tracks have a more general focus and are geared toward those who want to increase their knowledge in certain topics or techniques regardless of the equipment used. For example, the Digital Video Production: Lighting track will offer such sessions as “Lighting the Green Screen” and “Using Lights and Shadows for a Professional Look.” The Audio for Video track will offer such sessions as “Scoring Music for Video” and “Dynamic Noise Reduction and Audio Clean-Up.”

While many of the track themes are the same as last year, Kozuch notes that the content of all the sessions is new. “Even if someone took a session last year, for example, that focused on creating special effects in Avid,” says Kozuch, “they can rest assured that if they take that same course this year, they'll be exposed to different effects and different techniques.”

Keynote – Saturday, April 22

Dylan Tichenor

Editor of Academy Award Winning Film Brokeback Mountain

That said, this year's conference also features a number of completely new tracks and sessions. Particularly noteworthy are the number of new sessions and tracks built around the theme of high definition (HD). While last year's conference offered a number of HD sessions scattered among different tracks, this year's conference offers an entire track titled HD Solutions that covers a wide variety of editing, shooting, and workflow issues. That track runs through Tuesday and Wednesday and will include such sessions as “HD Lens Selection and Usage,” “Editing 4:4:4 Content,” and “HD Graphics in Live Production.”

Those interested in shooting in HD will be especially interested in another new track this year titled “Maximize Your Affordable HD Cameras.” This track consists of six three-hour sessions, four of which will be used to explore the workings of four different HD cameras: the Panasonic AG-HVX200, the Canon XL H1, the Sony Z-1/FX-1, and the JVC GY-HD100U. These sessions will go in-depth into the features and settings of these cameras, giving attendees a look at the advanced techniques and preferences that professionals are using today. The two remaining sessions of the track, “HDV: Understand the Format” and “Essential Accessories for HD and HDV Cameras” will provide valuable overview information for those just getting into HD shooting.

Finally, those interested in learning more about HD DVDs will want to be sure to attend the sessions on Sunday that are part of the track titled “DVD Authoring: The Next Generation.” Among the sessions to be offered on this day are “HD DVD Essentials” and “Working with BLU-RAY Discs.”

One thing attendees won't find at this year's conference are the PowerUser Panels offered last year. While Kozuch said attendees found them interesting, they expressed a clear preference for more practical sessions that can provide them with “good take-away technical information they can put into immediate use.” Taking those comments to heart, this year the panels have been eliminated to make more room for the more popular “In-depth” sessions scattered throughout the various tracks.

“In-depth” sessions are double-timeslot sessions geared for advanced users. Says Kozuch, “Some of the most advanced users told us they wanted more advanced sessions, so we've added more of those. These are sessions where instructors go fast, don't stop for questions, and go deep into a topic, typically deconstructing a project and reconstructing it.”

Some “In-depth” sessions, such as “HD to Film: The Entire Process” and “Killer Camera Rigs,” tackle general topic themes, while other sessions, such as “Mastering Expressions with Adobe After Effects” and “Apple Shake,” focus on specific software programs.

While most of the conference sessions tackle topics of a fairly technical nature, one obvious exception to that rule are the Career Workshop sessions. These business-oriented sessions are designed for creative professionals who need to run their own businesses — or simply want to better manage their careers. Among the sessions being offered in this track are “Making a Killer Show Reel,” “Forming (and Running) Your Production Company for Maximum Growth,” and “Writing Proposals That Sell and Contracts That Save.”

With so many sessions to choose from, attendees may want to take advantage of the 45-minute Orientation Session being offered Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m., titled “How to Maximize Your Conference Experience.” The goal of the session is to help attendees map out a useful lineup of sessions for themselves based on their interests and skill levels.

Keynote – Sunday, April 23

Hughes Winborne

Academy Award Winning Editor of Crash

The NAB Podcasting Summit is perhaps the most visible new addition to this year's conference. Though technically part of the NAB Post|Production World Conference, attendees have the option of registering for the NAB Podcasting Summit separately.

“There's been a real explosion of interest in podcasting, even though at the moment it's still a very new phenomenon,” says Kozuch. “It's all about mobile content, both video and audio. It's still a very mysterious area without any well-defined standards. It's where the Internet was 15 years ago. Some people think it's not going to catch on, but even those people want to know more about it, just in case, so they don't miss the boat.”

The NAB Podcasting Summit is essentially a two-day conference that runs from Saturday, April 22, through Sunday, April 23. The first day of the conference is largely technical in nature, providing attendees with a complete overview of different audio and video production and encoding techniques. The second day of the conference focuses on the business aspects of podcasting, including legal issues, marketing, ethics, distribution, revenue generation and more.

With so much to do, there's no question that anyone attending this year's NAB Post|Production World Conference will walk away with a wealth of valuable, practical information. But as always, conference organizers also want attendees to walk away with an expanded network of contacts and colleagues. With that in mind, the conference will once again offer a number of business and social networking opportunities that include the Connection Matchmaking program, Dinner with a Colleague, and the Birds of a Feather gatherings.

“Success in this industry is based so much on who you know, so it's important to create opportunities where people can meet up with others who have compatible interests and needs,” says Kozuch.

To find out more about those networking opportunities, or to register for the NAB Post|Production World Conference, go to www.nabshow.com and click on the conference link. Full descriptions of all sessions are posted online as well.

In addition to hosting the annual NAB show in Las Vegas, the National Association of Broadcasters is a full-service trade association that promotes and protects free, over-the-air local radio and television stations' interests in Washington, and around the world. NAB is the broadcaster's voice before Congress, federal agencies, and the courts. NAB also serves a growing number of associate and international broadcaster members.

The NAB show itself has enjoyed explosive growth over the last decade. In 1992, the show attracted 54,000 attendees. By 1997, attendance had topped 100,000. Today, NAB continues to be the world's leading showcase for content creation, management, and delivery tools, trends, and technologies for television, radio, film, audio, video, streaming media, satellite, and telecommunications.

In addition to the NAB Post|Production World Conference, the NAB show also includes a number of additional conferences, including the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference, the NAB Multimedia World Conferences, which includes the Digital Cinema Summit.

More information about NAB is available at www.nab.org and www.nabshow.com.

As a co-producer of the NAB Post|Production World Conference, Future Media Concepts (FMC) brings to the table an unparalleled level of educational expertise.

Considered the nation''s premier digital media training center, FMC has classrooms in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Miami, and Orlando and boasts an extensive team of manufacturer-authorized instructors. FMC is a certified-training provider for Adobe, Apple, Avid, Macromedia, Sony, NewTek, Autodesk, Boris, Digidesign, and Softimage.

FMC''s experience in training ensures that the sessions being offered at the NAB Post|Production World Conference will meet the highest standards of quality. In addition, those who want to follow up on the training they get at NAB can take one of the many courses offered by FMC.

In addition to its classrooms on the East Coast, FMC provides on-site training nationwide. More information about FMC is available at
www.fmctraining.com –SP